so after a month or so of debating, i finally pulled the trigger and ordered a Garmin Zumo XT yesterday, for what i believe is a pretty decent deal, as the pricing on these XTs seems to be holding to MAP set by Garmin ... US$499.99, plus tax and shipping where applicable. i found an online retailer with an advertised price of US$499.99, inclusive of tax and shipping ... so i clicked to the site, and was presented by the usual "sign up for our newsletter, and get a discount off your first purchase" pop-up window. i clicked, as the discount was stated to be 15%. once i navigated through to the shopping cart where the option to input a discount/promo code was presented, i pasted the discount code they emailed me, and sure enough, US$425 was the final price, delivered. if anyone else is mildly interested in this deal (i have zero affiliation with the site/company), here is the URL ... https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai...hUKEwi2qfKq7dfpAhWGpp4KHU5YBYcQ1ikIsAE&adurl=
I've had a TomTom for some years and I never found it much use. When I can back to biking/driving, I am going to buy a new Garmin. Is this one, the Garmin to get at the moment? I expect for that money, you did some exhaustive research!
this is the latest and greatest Zumo from Garmin ... chock full of upgrades from the previous generation/models. i have been chuffed with the Zumo 395LM i have presently, but this model is a BIG improvement in so many of the features and benefits boxes, that i could not pass it up ... and certainly not at the price. time will tell if i have made a wise decision ... and i am not one of those wankers that will not admit when they have made a not-so-wise decision.
As a long term fan of GPS especially Garmin, I own eight units although none of those are Zumo's. I use a couple of Nuvi's for the bikes. Notwithstanding, your question is topical as I find that stand-alone GPS days may be numbered. There are some phone apps such as Waze that I would like incorporated onto a Garmin. Although stand-alone GPS units offers some outstanding features not yet available on phones, the practicality gap between phones and GPS's is getting narrower.
Whilst phone aps have their place they are far from perfect for bike navigation. However, paid for aps like Copilot blur the lines somewhat. Dedicated GPS devices are suitably robust for use on a bike. Phones now tend to be weather sealed but charging ports are still relatively delicate. They have specific designed in features to improve navigation capabilities as well as extra ones not specifically related to nav function but useful all the same. Unless you want it there's no inturuption with an incoming call with a dedicated nav unit. The ability to plan comprehensive routes and store these on the device for future use. A whole tour, planned on your PC, load each day as you progress through the trip. Though the likes of Copilot can do this. Designed with mounting to a bike, and being powered. Something you need to sort out with a phone based solution. I have Copilot on my phone as an emergency backup so I do sort of have my feet in both camps. I also use Android Auto in my car which connects to my phone and uses Google mapping and routing which displays on the head unit screen and integrates with the car audio. A great system and if they developed a panel for bike use I'd be at the head of the queue.
I’m a massive Garmin fan and have not been without one since their Quest model. Love the look of the new XT, and I hope it works well for you but I was so disappointed to find that it no longer supported wired audio in and out. I use the starcom1 hard wired helmet system and without the nightmare of Bluetooth and rechargeable headsets. Why?? Loads of day and week trips, thousands of miles, always listen to music and as I’m hard wired, never once have I lost connection, or “gone flat”. Oh.... and no messing around with buttons on my helmet. I guess you’d call my setup old school, but why fix what’s always worked with sticking an odd shaped lump of plastic on the side of my £600 aerodynamically designed helmet? Come on Garmin..... sort it out please, give us the option back.
I had a 395LM for a few trips to Europe. Didn’t like base camp , didn’t like the time it took to recalculate routes , couldn’t see the screen in the sun. Very expensive for no reason .flogged it at a great loss Found google way better for me personally, even with out the features
I have an XT and I love it, much better screen than previous Garmins. Haven’t really used it much yet because of the the obvious! I like the fact that it has WiFi built in. It connects to my router and checks for updates as soon as you turn it on and does updates from the garage. Much thinner and lighter the the 595 so is quite stable on a my Evotech bracket. I also got a deal at Easter, I paid £340, I sold my second hand BMW Nav 5 for £410 so it was well worth it for me!
Never had a wired setup, but would’ve thought you could connect using a Bluetooth transmitter if you wanted to upgrade your Garmin.
That’s right you can. However you’re reliant on Bluetooth again and it’s good but not perfect. Hard wired never fails.
Apart from the benefits already mentioned, they are (can be) very robust; I have a Ducati satnav mount on my Diavel and one day I didn't insert the Garmin 390 properly in the mount. Needless to say it came out and went bouncing down the road and also got run over by some passing traffic. I retrieved it and it still worked, although I did need to change the screen which was cracked, something I could do myself but probably not with a phone!
i appreciate all the comments. the main reason i have been using GPS on my touring bikes boils down to one reason ... cell range here in the US. no matter which carrier i have had, their cell towers are not everywhere, so having cell reception continuously is not a reality here. and while i know about downloading maps onto a smartphone so when the cell reception goes away, one still has the map loaded ... in my experience, the smartphone is not updating the location while there is no reception, so sure, one has a map, but one does know where one is it at any given time when cell reception is not present. i suppose this is why there are 32 flavours of ice cream at Baskin Robbins ... not everyone likes the same flavour ;-)
Good point. Where I am, in Gloucestershire, mobile reception is between bad and non-existent. Given that my main use, in the past, has been around here, the Australian Alps (where my phone could be switched off to preserve roaming and data fees), and the Welsh mountains (where I suspect there is zero reception).
Smartphone location for the purposes of GPS is just that GPS, cell tower triangulation doesn't come into it, it's not accurate enough. You can, as JC says, have mapping data on your phone, even Google Maps allows that these days. You won't get active traffic or weather radar though as that data comes in via your phone data connection.
OK. This is something that I have been confused about. So, although a mobile should be able to locate you based upon the triangulation of at least three masks, it is not brilliantly accurate. So the mapping function on my Android phone does, in fact, use true GPS?
Crumbled and bought one from SportsBikeShop, a not so little lock-down indulgence that I shouldn't really be splurging on... Matched Helmet City price at £343.99 delivered. Once I have the bits off the bike my Zumo 590 will be going onto eBay or on here to help pay for this.
Virtually all, if not all, true smartphones have a GPS chip. So yes, phone mast triangulation with three masts can place you in a 3/4 mile square apparently but so many variables involved that this can fluctuate upwards wildly to a broader area. I'm sure GCHQ can track you better than that with additional topographical data etc. though. GPS, with a few satellites is within 5 metres. No contest.
